Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Edwards countered the assault on his ability to order businesses to close, people to stay home and schools to shutter by highlight support he received from Republican President Donald Trump last week during a White House visit.

"I can tell you he was very supportive, as was the vice president and the entire team," Edwards said Wednesday in a press conference.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards gives an update on the coronavirus during a press conference on April 21, 2020.(Photo: Greg Hilburn/USA Today Network)

State GOP House leader Rep. Blake Miguez of Erath offered a plan to limit the governor’s emergency powers that went before lawmakers for the first time Wednesday.

The House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 9-7 to advance the propoals in a near party-line decision that would strip the governor of his ability to penalize businesses that don't comply with his order, for 15 days from passage.

That means closure requirements for bars, theaters, gyms, salons, tattoo parlors and more; bans on sit-down restaurants; and limits on public gatherings of more than 10 people at churches and elsewhere couldn't be enforced by Edwards during that time.

“The intent of this is to take the teeth out of his emergency order,” Miguez said. He added: “We've flattened the curve. Now it's time to start looking at reopening the economy."

The meaure requires passage by the full House and Senate before taking effect. And it could be moot within days.

State Rep. Blake Miguez(Photo: File photo)

The governor is “just being stubborn. This is the time for him to really listen to the voices of the people back home. We've got to take the responsible approach to protecting lives and livelihoods,” Miguez told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Edwards said he hasn't been paying attention to the debate on the measure, but he added, "I don’t see any merit in the resolution."

Edwards pointed to praise from Trump in defending his extension of his stay-home order until May 15, despite calls from state lawmakers and business leaders to begin phasing in a reopening. The governor said he is following federal guidelines on when to lift his order, which was initially set to expire May 1.

“What I know is, a week ago today I was in Washington, D.C. with the president explaining what we’ve done here in Louisiana, and why and how it accords with the guidelines he put forward,” Edwards said.

The president and other administration officials have praised state efforts in fighting the virus, he said. “They saw how we were able to come together, put in some mitigation measures and really start to flatten that curve pretty quickly."

Edwards said it was still too early to say if the state will be able to enter the first phase of the White House’s guidelines after his order expires next week.

“I’m hopeful, but I’m not going to answer the question because we haven’t looked at the data we need to yet to make a decision because the data isn’t available.”

Louisiana will also need to ramp up testing and contract tracing before moving into the first phase of reopening, Edwards said. The state will hire 700 more contact tracers to identify personal contacts of people who test positive for the coronavirus, part of a robust testing effort he said will be in place as the stay-home order and other restrictions are lifted.

The state passed a milestone of over 30,000 confirmed cases of the virus Wednesday, and another 52 deaths were reported, bringing the total number of lives lost to 2,094.

Edwards said Wednesday’s figures for new cases and deaths appear to follow a trend in recent days of slowing activity, while hospitalizations and ventilator use, which both dropped by more than 3% from Tuesday, continued to fall.

“It kinda looks like the trend that we’ve been seeing where the cases go up every day, the deaths sadly go up every day, but the numbers in hospital are either flat or down a little bit, which obviously is the good news,” Edwards said. “The bad news are the deaths.”